EMC registers mysterious new trademark

EMC has trademarked a new product name: VSPeX. So what the heck is it?

Searches on EMC websites reveal that VSPeX is a way to enable "faster virtual infrastructure deployment, greater flexibility of choice, efficiency, and lower risk." The trademark info can be seen here, and is dated 12 February 2012. It is described as:

Searches through various EMC websites revealed this nugget in a Hong Kong site: "Virtualize your storage to enable simultaneous information access within, between ... flexibility of choice, efficiency, and lower risk with EMC VSPEX solutions." Clicking on the URL unearths no mention of VSPeX on the webpage that it summons.

"Greater flexibility of choice" doesn't sound like an appliance. These limit your choice – that's why they are appliances: all the components are specified.

But the thing lowers risk – somehow – so the components that you can choose must be validated or certified – somehow.

It provides efficiency, so the thing somehow saves you time and effort, and it's used in virtual infrastructure deployment – meaning, basically, virtual servers at least and maybe virtualised storage.

Drums sounding in the EMC partner jungle spelled out the message that it is less than a vBlock, much more than a DIY component-level approach, and more tightly defined than a NetApp-Cisco Flexpod.

The El Reg take: EMC's VSPEX is a mini-vBlock-like near-appliance specification with a collection of validated server, storage (EMC VNX/VNXe presumably), networking, virtualisation (VMware +Hyper-V?), and data management components that is not as open as Flexpod.

So does this mean a loosening of Cisco server and networking ties?

We have no idea when or if VSPEX (virtual specifications or vSpecs?) is coming to the market. ®